"Wizard With The Secret Sauce" Has Built Three Super Bowl Teams in Eight Years

NEW ORLEANS – Brandon Graham could have been talking about Colonel Sanders when he called general manager Howie Roseman a wizard and said he had the secret sauce. The defensive end wasn’t talking chicken, though the Eagles were pretty finger-lickin’ good in picking the Kansas City Chiefs to the bone in their 40-22 win in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday night.

“This is special because (owner) Mr. (Jeffrey) Lurie, Howie, they’re the ones who brought the magic in and we were the ones we had to relay the message that whatever Nick talked about we all believed in the dream,” said Graham. “Everybody bought into it.”

Each year brings a new team. Roseman and his staff identify who might fit, run it by the coaching staff, and make the ultimate decision. By his own admission, Roseman will tell you he is not immune to making mistakes.

He is willing to take risks that other GMs don’t, for whatever reason. He says that it doesn’t have to do with feeling like he has the ultimate job security, but he kind of does, especially when your boss – Lurie – said this following the Eagles second Lombardi Trophy in eight years and third trip to the Super Bowl over that span.

“I’ve known for years that he’s the best GM in football,” said the owner. “He’s always thinking about what can improve the team 365 days a year. He’s not risk averse, he’s aggressive. That’s what I want. We’ve collaborated for 20-something years. He’s incredibly good, and a future Hall of Fame GM.”

A future Hall of Fame general manager. He may very well be.

The offseason began well before the clock hit zeros inside the Caesars Superdome, and there is plenty of work to be done, without much money underneath the salary cap to get it done.

Like every year, there will be hard decisions to make. The Eagles have eight key free agents, each of whom contributed mightily to this year’s Super Bowl championship:

-Zack Baun

-Josh Sweat

-Milton Williams

-Mekhi Becton

-Isaiah Rodgers

-Oren Burks

-Kenny Gainwell

-Fred Johnson

“I don’t know how you gonna keep them all, but he’s a wizard,” said Graham. “He’ll figure out a way. … If you’re an intern coming in and I want to be up under Howie because he has some special stuff going on and he has the secret sauce.”

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